Section 107 order received by Child Support 277-05020010

Information regarding a parent's application to court for an s107 order can be received in a number of ways:

• telephone call from either party
• copy of the application received from either the court or the parties involved, or
• correspondence from either party

Even though Child Support can accept notification over the telephone, a copy of the s107 application must be sighted.

Scrutinise the document to fully understand its intention. An s107 application should contain the grounds of the application and refer to the applicant seeking a declaration under s107 of the Child Support (Assessment) Act 1989.

The s107 application can be viewed from the View Correspondence window which is accessed via the Customer window.

Record basic details of the application/court order information on the Communication window:

• reason - 'Provide inform'
• with - 'Court'
• category - 'Registration'
• Issue - 'S107'

In the notepad, record:

• that the s107 application/court order has been received
• that the s107 application/court order particulars are located in the View Correspondence window
• the following particulars:
• Received date
• Category and
• Sub Category

Note: document the reasons for the decision and reference the legislation used to make the decision.

If a court order has been received, go to Step 7. Otherwise, go to Step 3.

Once the s107 application has been received, the assessment is still collectable, but the payee's entitlement to receive payments of child support for the child who is the subject of the payer’s application must be suspended. See the Child Support Guide 5.5.4: Suspending payments to payees for further information. See Suspending disbursements of Child Support for assistance with suspending payments.

Note: the suspended payments or hold must be released prior to actioning the s107 on Cuba.

In some cases, courts may make a stay order pending the decision on the application. A stay order may stay the whole operation, or only some functions of the Assessment Act and/or Registration and Collection Act. For information on stay orders see the Child Support Guide 4.3.2: Applications and orders about decisions under the Assessment Act. If a stay order is made, see Stay orders (CS).

Contact the payer and advise them that:

• they are still obliged to make payments to Child Support for the child who is the subject of the application, but amounts for that child will not be disbursed to the payee, and
• they must send a stamped/sealed copy of the court’s order to Child Support, once a decision has been made

Contact the payee and advise them that Child Support:

• have been notified of the payer’s application in court seeking a declaration that they should not be assessed in respect of the costs of the child
• are obliged to suspend payments to the payee for that child
• will continue to disburse to the payee any amounts that relate to any other child (or children) for whom the payer is liable to pay child support.

The payer must send Child Support a copy of the order or orders that the court makes after it has dealt with the s107 application. The order/orders must have the seal (or stamp) of the court.

The court may have:

• refused to make a declaration under s107(4) of the Assessment Act (this can also be expressed as a decision to refuse or dismiss the payer’s application)
• made a declaration under s107(4) of the Assessment Act (this can also be expressed as a decision to grant the payer’s application), and
• made an order under s143 (a ‘Parentage Overpayment Order’) which allows the payer to recover some or all of the child support paid to the payee. It is possible the court will make an s107 declaration on one date and make a s143 order at a later time

Note: in some cases Child Support may receive a court order without getting prior notification of an s107 application. For these cases, if the court has made an s107 declaration, place a 'hold credits' on the payers account as soon as the court order is received. See Suspending disbursements of Child Support. This will prevent any further monies being disbursed before the court order is processed.

The court orders are imaged and can be viewed in the View Correspondence window.

Section 107 orders: Select the notepad that was recorded in the Communication window with information on the application for an s107 order. Update this notepad with the details of the order.

Section 143 orders: Summarise the full details of the court order in the payer’s Communication window.

Note: summarise the outcome of the orders on the relevant Case window notepad only if there is a variation to the particulars of the assessment.

If child support payments are to resume, go to Step 8.

If the assessment is to end, go to Step 1 in the Managing an s107 order - assessment to be refused table.

Child Support will only make a resumption determination (recommence disbursement/payments) when:

• a court has made an order refusing the payer's application for a declaration and that order has become final
• the payer withdraws their application for a declaration, or
• the court has struck out or dismissed the payer's application

If one of the above dot points apply, pay to the payee any child support held as a result of the suspension. See Suspending disbursements of Child Support.

If whilst awaiting the decision of the court, a stop withholding indicator had been placed on the customer, this should be removed. See Employer withholding (linking) Cuba Process Help.

Checks should be made on the accounts to see if any refunds need manual action. For example, there may be excess cash available to be refunded to the payer.

If a stay order had been processed as per Step 3 (Suspend Payments), remove the effects of this. See Stay orders (CS).

Both customers should have already received a copy of the order from the court or their solicitor. Telephone contact with both customers should be made to advise them of the outcome. For example, the payee could be advised of the total amount of monies that may have been held and when to expect disbursement of the money.

The process ends here.

Note: the authorisation for actioning an s107 application is at the SO5 delegation (SSO).

If the court has made a declaration under s107, Child Support are taken never to have accepted the application for an administrative assessment of child support payable by the payer to the payee for the child. The way Child Support gives effect to the declaration depends on whether there are any remaining eligible children in the case.

Before processing the s107 decision, eligibility must run to ensure that any unprocessed case events are resolved and an accurate view of the accounts is visible. See Eligibility Cuba process help.

Once eligibility has run, checks should be made of the payee and payer accounts. Any current overpaid amounts (for both the payee and payer) and unallocated NAPs must be noted as this information will be relevant when adjusting the accounts at Step 4.

Note: any hold or suspension of payments placed on the case must be removed prior to processing the s107 declaration.

When processing an s107 and/or s143 order, all processing must be completed in the same day. This includes creating an overpayment waiver. If the process is not completed in the same day, an overpayment letter will generate.

Note: if an overpayment is left on an account overnight, an RPO -01 Receiving Parent Overpayment letter will generate. If this letter generates, delete it on the following day. See Letters Cuba process help. If the letter has been generated and sent to the customer, contact the customer and advise that a letter has been sent in error and document the contact on the Cuba record.

If an s107 declaration is made that will end the case (if it is for the only child or all children of the case) record all non-collect period details and the assessed rates of child support payable in a Cuba notepad before ending the case. This is because collection details will not be displayed after ending the case.

The reason for this is, if a s143 order is made at a later date there may be a need to calculate the overpayment. The s143 order may state that the ‘overpayment’ includes the liability raised during any non-collect periods or there may be a need to isolate just the collect periods. As non-collect period details are not available in Cuba after ending a case, this information must be captured so it can be used if/when a s143 order is made.

Document on the notepad details of the assessed rates so that payments that may have been made above what the payer was assessed to pay are not included.

Cuba Documentation

Record the case collection details in a Case notepad. For example:

Heading: S107 - non collect details.

Non-collect periods were as follows:

09/04/1999 - 01/04/2001 - daily rate $1.25123

04/10/2003 - 01/02/2004 - daily rate $2.60456

OR

There were no non-collect periods.

Note: document the reasons for the decision and reference the legislation used to make the decision.

For more detail about what to document, see Documenting Child Support information in Cuba.

Remove any hold or suspension of payments placed on the case prior to processing the s107 declaration, then see the Relationship Cuba process help.

If the s107 order relates to all of the children in the case, once Eligibility is run, the case will be made ineligible from the start date.

If the s107 declaration does not apply to all of the children but all of the children were included in the assessment for the entire duration of the case, Cuba will automatically adjust the start date or end date of liability if necessary.

Note: if the s107 declaration does not apply to all children of the assessment and/or there is a period when any of the children were not included (for example, a child went to live with a third party or was born after the case started) manual processing may be required.

Once the changes have been recorded and saved against the relevant child/children, see Suspending disbursements of Child Support, for the release of the held payments.

Once the s107 has been processed, the accounts should be checked for:

• Both payer and payee accounts:
• Overpayments, go to Step 5
• Unallocated NAPs, go to Step 6
• Payer account: excess cash and other accounting issues, go to Step 7

These amounts should be cross checked against the figures (if any) recorded at Step 1.

Payee overpayments

Overpayments arising from actioning an s107 order must be recorded as an overpayment waiver on Cuba to ensure that inappropriate collection activity does not occur against that amount, and is replaced by the registration of a s143 order where one has been made.

An overpayment waiver must be actioned on the same day as ending the assessment, otherwise the customer may receive incorrect letters.

Move the monies to the Manage Gift and Overpayment window, see Overpayments Cuba process help.

Fully document on the notepad, that the s107 overpayment has been moved to gift and the reason why. Include the legislative reference used to make the decision. See Documenting Child Support information in Cuba.

Payer overpayments

This field displays the total of all current negative balances on the payer's maintenance account i.e. any current maintenance overpayment(s).

Click the Overpaid ellipse button, this navigates to the Payer Overpayment by Case dialogue box to view a breakdown of the overpayment by amount and case.

Where there is only one child involved in the case and an s107 declaration has been made by the court, any unallocated NAPs should be reduced to nil. The payer must be contacted and advised that the unallocated NAPs will be removed from the case. Advise the payer they can make an application to the court to make a ruling in regards to the unallocated NAPs and prescribed NAPs.

To reduce the NAP to nil, see Non-agency payment (NAP) Cuba process help.

Clearly document the conversations and actions in the Case window.

If there are two or more children and only one is affected by the s107 declaration, any unallocated NAPs should remain unchanged.

For more information, see the Child Support Guide 5.3.1: Non-agency payments.

Excess Cash

If there is any excess cash for the payer, refund it to the payer. To refund, see Refunds Cuba process help.

Payer delinked

If the payer is no longer liable to pay child support to the payee and is linked to an employer, de-link the payer. For more information, see Employer Withholding (linking) for Child Support customers.

Arrears remaining

If there are other eligible children remaining in the case, once the ‘ineligible’ child or children have been removed from the case, the arrears remaining on the accounts should be a true reflection of what the accounts are.

If there are arrears, commence collection activity, see Debt repayment (CS).

Penalties

Any penalties that have accrued on the case that relate to amounts payable for the child for whom the court has made an s107 declaration should be cancelled. For details on how to cancel penalties, see Penalties for Child Support debts.

If the customer only supplied an s107 order, go to Step 8.

If the customer supplied an s107 order and a s143 order, see Section 143 order received by Child Support.

Once an s107 declaration has been processed, create a unique letter for each party using the Section 107 letter macro. The macro will create the content for the letter, which must be pasted into a unique letter with assessment (MX0-2) in Cuba. See Letters Cuba process help.

Note: where there was only one child on the case the MX0-2 will not issue. Use the Section 107 letter and copy the content into the MX0-1 (unique letter without assessment). A maximum of three years of assessments can be sent with each MX0-2. If an s107 declaration affects an assessment for more than three years prior contact a Service Support Officer (SSO to issue multiple MX0-2 letters. See Technical Support in Child Support. The SSO will ensure the correct number of MX0-2 letters (and assessments) issue.